Russia calls on to take seriously the possibility of “overflow” of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan to Central Asia.
Terrorists of the banned group in Russia “Islamic State” (IS) tend to turn Afghanistan into a base for the destabilization of the entire region, including the countries of Central Asia. This was stated at a press briefing by the director of the Department of Information and Press of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
“Radical Islamists have long ago proven their ability to use any crises situations in their advantage, exacerbating old conflicts and creating new one, violence and tensions, – she said. – These developments pose a direct threat to Afghanistan, which for many years is going through a military and political crisis. The military successes of the IS in the Middle East until recently served as a very important propaganda trump card, which allowed and still allows to bring into the ranks of the organization new supporters, new suicide fighters, and, importantly, in almost all the regions”.
“When Russia launched a decisive military IS eradication and other terrorist organizations in Syria, a partial shift to Afghanistan may allow the IS to represent themselves as an effective military structure that has opened a “second front” in spite of the offensive by the anti ISIL forces in the Middle East and North Africa,”- said Zakharov.
According to her, the recent events in Afghanistan, “are associated with a significant intensification of competition and various terrorist groups, in particular, we are talking about a split in the ranks of “Taliban” movement (banned in Russia), as well as the active penetration of the IS in Afghanistan”.
“All this confirms that the territory of the country remains one of the main sources of global terrorist threat”, – added the Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“We regret that our concerns were not sufficiently and properly took into account and analyzed, – she stated. – Now we are clearly seeing those unintended consequences, about which Russia spoke for so many years. Moreover, in addition to the internal struggle between the Taliban and ISIL members, for the control over a number of provinces of Afghanistan, the terrorists implement a strategy aimed at seizing territory in the immediate vicinity of the Afghan border with neighboring countries”.
“Many times the terrorist groups, including the IS, have voiced their plans to form a base for a future destabilization of the entire region in Afghanistan, – noticed Zakharov. – These threats are beginning to acquire quite real. The capture of the Afghan provinces by the militants, who have affiliated with the IS, indicates that the current leaders of the “terroristic internationality” are really trying to implement in practice their threats”.
“We need to seriously consider the scenario of prevention of the terrorist threat “overflow” beyond Afghanistan, especially as one of the very attractive, tidbits for terrorists is the territory of our allies, our neighbors and partners, the Central Asian states,” – stressed the diplomat.
“Islamic state” is an Islamist terrorist organization operating on the territory of Iraq and Syria. It was created on the 15th of October in 2006 by the merger of 11 radical Sunni groups. The “backbone” of the group is formed by the fighters who fought with US forces during their stay in Iraq and the forces of Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. IS is recognized as a terrorist organization in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Turkey, Egypt, UAE, India, Indonesia, as well as in Russia (from 29th of December, 2014).
